The functionality that is available to users of computing devices is ever increasing. One example of this increase is the ability to consume and output video by the device. To support transfer and storage of the video, the video is often compressed, which may be performed using a variety of different compression standards (e.g., codecs), such as SMPTE VC-1, H.264/AVC and HEVC/H.265. Secure decoding of encoded data streams may be accomplished by a decoder that performs decoding on behalf of consuming application. Generally, video processing and playback consumes large amounts of memory and processing power. For example, the memory and processing capabilities required for handling popular and emerging high resolution formats such as 1080p and 4K may be considerable. Consequently, some low-end devices with limited capabilities may be unable to support content in these formats due to memory limitation and other aspects. Additionally, traditional processing schemes may fail to account for differences between devices and content types, which can result in inefficient processing in some scenarios.